Saturday, February 12, 2011

And we're off!!!

This is so exciting!  As Pace University students in the Media and Communication Arts program, we are thrilled to have the opportunity to participate in this travel course to Belize.  We’re producing a documentary about the world of shrimp farming.  In our excursion we plan to learn and explore this country, its culture, and new areas of its environment.

Linda Thornton is one of the few women shrimp farmers in the world.  She is a dedicated and well-known advocate for sustainable aquaculture in Central America and a valuable resource for our film.  Ms. Thornton originally from Illinois, vacationed in Belize where she fell in love with the lifestyle and beauty of the country.  Being an experienced shrimp farmer her transition to Belize was smooth.  Since relocating to Belize, she learned how to farm shrimp and currently manages Aquamar, one of three shrimp farms we will visit.  http://www.worldwildlife.org/what/globalmarkets/aquaculture/grandma.html

One of Ms. Thornton’s main goals is to develop ways to farm shrimp that isn't harmful to the environment.  In many parts of the world, farms that produce the frozen shrimp result in the destruction of mangrove forests and other costal ecosystems.  These farms use large amounts of water and generate choking flows of waste in the water.

We are honored to have Andy Revkin, a veteran New York Times environmental correspondent, author of the Blog Dot Earth and senior fellow for environmental understanding at the Pace Academy for Applied Environmental studies, to help plan and execute this film with us.

Currently, we’ve started the pre-production process.  So far, we have handed out individual and group assignments. All students are in the stages of researching and brainstorming film ideas.   We hope you join us on our journey to Central America by following our Blog. We will detail our exploration into the world of shrimp farming and our experiences as we learn new aspects of the environment.

4 comments:

  1. Hey Guys, I am from Oceana in Belzei, where we recently successfully banned ALL forms of trawling in our waters. We do hope that is now allows for the resurrection of the artisal fishers cast-net shrimping so as to allow them a source of income and us the shrimp-lovers the most sustainable form of shrimps yet. Do hope we get to share more with you about this.

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  2. Very cool. I look forward to following your adventures.

    Justin Kenney
    NOAA Communications

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  3. As the originator of consumer advice on sustainable seafood back in 1998 (we've continuously maintained and updated our data-base from then to now), I'm pretty interested and will watch for more from you.

    I might even want to take a class from Stony Brook University there too some day, depending on what you pioneers discover.

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  4. How's the Hotel Hello? I heard there are geckos in the rooms. I am very interested to read/see how this person runs her shrimp farm so keep the information comming. Beware the ELV!

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